My
father was a minister in an ultra-conservative Mennonite church.
In our home
there was no card playing, no drinking, smoking, dancing,
movies, or jewelry. My mother didn’t even have a wedding ring.
I still don’t smoke, and I don’t dance very well either.

One
of the things my father changed, though, was the church’s
view on education. He sent me to college. It was the middle of
the Depression, so the only choice I had was Moravian College for
Women.
It was a good choice, and I got a good education. I had always
wanted to teach school, until my first practice-teaching session.
That cured
me. So, while I got my teaching certification, I’ve never
used it.

I’ve
been very active as an alumna. I’ve headed
several fund drives and served on numerous committees, including
the Commission
on the Future, a strategic-planning group for all aspects of
the college.

My
father bought a radio station in Allentown and conducted a
Morning Devotions program there every morning until his death
in 1957.
As a college senior, I began working at the station three days
a week
and stayed there after I graduated. My salary was $15 every
two weeks, less 15 cents for Social Security. The first year, I
paid
$6 in income
tax.

My
brother and I became partners in the radio station, WSAN, in 1950.
I was the manager, ran the business end of the station,
and
dealt
with the Federal Communications Commission. WSAN was one
of the first in the country to use computers for billing and programming.
I began
with the IBM card system in the 1950s and graduated to an
interactive
computer in the 1960s. Bud took care of the technical end,
and
he was good at it. Neither of us ever appeared in front of
the mike.
I loved every minute of the years I spent there. I retired
in 1980.

Thanks
to the radio station, I was the first woman allowed in the press
box at Yankee Stadium, and I’ve stood
on the roof of the Empire State Building. In 1948 I had press
credentials to the
three major political conventions—Republican, Democrat,
and Dixiecrat—and I sat on the railing of the press
box for a great view of Thomas E. Dewey’s nomination.

I
attended one of Perle Mesta’s parties. (You remember
her: “the
hostess with the mostest.”) Bess Truman was there
and all the wives of the Cabinet secretaries except Mrs.
George Marshall (who
was sworn in that day as Secretary of State). I remember
that Margaret Truman came in late with her friend, Drucie
Snyder, daughter of the
Secretary of the Treasury, and there was no place for
them to sit. So they took their plates and sat on the
stairs
to eat their dinner.

Now
that I’m retired, sometimes
I wonder how I ever found time to work. I knit and
crochet and do most other forms of needlework.
I have a 3-by-4-foot träume tapestry, a picture
of a couple in a pastoral setting. My walls are full
of counted cross-stitch
works: among them, a five-panel Nativity.

What
else? For 20 years, I was a very active driver for Meals
on Wheels. I also was a dispatcher, an office
volunteer,
a member of its board, and even a client—when
I broke my leg on a Meals on Wheels round. I’ve
been on the Board of Associates of Lehigh Valley
Hospital and served as a committee member for Pinebrook
Educational
Foundation.

My
latest project is a self-study course in Koine Greek. And I’ve
joined an adult class at a Reform Jewish synagogue
to learn the basics of Hebrew. I’m the first
non-Jew admitted to the class.